Pros of Electing the Same Congressman Over and Over Again
The 22nd Amendment sets a two-term limit on the office of the President. Should members of the other ii branches follow the same rule?
A limit on the President'south tenure was inspired by George Washington, who established the custom of Presidents voluntarily leaving the office after two terms. His conclusion to pace down is celebrated past the song "1 Last Fourth dimension" in the Broadway musical Hamilton, in which Alexander Hamilton confronts Washington: "Why do you have to say goodbye?" Washington replies confidently: "[T]he nation learns to move on / Information technology outlives me when I'm gone." The move was seen as an important safeguard against tyrannical power.
Several later Presidents tried for a 3rd term in office, but none were successful until Franklin Delano Roosevelt's re-election to a tertiary term in 1940. Republicans, led by their presidential nominee Wendell Wilkie, campaigned against a third-term President, simply Roosevelt won by insisting that he was in the race to keep America out of war in Europe.
Serious talk of an subpoena didn't start until 1944, when Republican opponent Thomas Dewey argued that a fourth Roosevelt term would be a threat to democracy. Then, in 1947, a Republican-controlled Congress sent a 22nd Amendment to the states for ratification. On February 27, 1951, the subpoena was finally ratified.
In the modern era, Americans concerned well-nigh government corruption and accountability accept turned to the idea of term limits as a tool for improving the work of Congress and the Supreme Court. Indeed, Republican presidential candidates Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are amid those who accept expressed support for such a proposal. But are term limits for the legislative and judicial branches a good idea?
There is certainly wide support for reform. In a 2013 Gallup poll, 75 pct of Americans expressed support for congressional term limits, and in a 2022 Reuters/Ipsos poll, 66 per centum of Americans expressed back up for Supreme Courtroom term limits. In both polls, at that place were strong majorities in both parties and amid independents. That is to say nil of declining trust in government and elected officials.
And then what effect might term limits have? Proponents argue that a limited tenure for members of Congress could motivate them to "seize the day" and exercise their power on behalf of their constituents and the common good. A lack of long-serving members could reduce power advantages gained through seniority and pb to committee appointments based on merit. Cycling leaders in and out of office could remind them of what "existent life" is like and brand them more effective leaders.
Above all, supporters debate, term limits could reduce abuse and increase independence from special interests and partisanship. Past rotating leadership, lobbyists and advocacy groups would not be able to "invest" in campaigns and curry favor over time. Plus, "power tends to corrupt," so if power is limited, the thinking goes, and then is abuse.
On the other hand, defenders of unlimited terms point to the feel and independence gained from long service. With such a big and complicated federal bureaucracy, members are well-nigh constructive—and most resistant to special interests—when they are almost knowledgeable. Defenders also claim the idea is undemocratic—why shouldn't a constituency be able to reward and punish its representatives as information technology sees fit? (An incumbency charge per unit well over 90 percent and the increasing levels of money in politics propose elections may non exist as effective a check on congressional failure equally this argument contends.)
With regard to the Supreme Court, leading scholars including Erwin Chemerinsky on the left and Steven Calabresi on the correct have proposed unmarried, eighteen-year terms for Justices. Such a system would requite a one-term President two appointments to the Court and a two-term President four appointments. Information technology could lower the stakes in private confirmation fights and reduce polarization on the Court. Information technology could also help the Court stay in touch with larger shifts in society.
In 2015, then-Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee also proposed term limits for the Court, citing the Founders' back up. Yet as Lyle Denniston explained for this blog, Hamilton appears to take the contrary view in Federalist No. 78. "The standard of proficient beliefs for the continuance in office of the judicial magistracy is certainly ane of the most valuable of the mod improvements in the do of government," wrote the upstart Founder. "It is the all-time expedient which can be devised in any government to secure a steady, upright and impartial assistants of the laws."
Huckabee or Hamilton? The argue rolls on.
Nicandro Iannacci is a web content strategist at the National Constitution Center.
Source: https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/should-there-be-term-limits-for-members-of-congress-and-the-supreme-court
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